Quarks and a unified theory of Nature fundamental forces

Quarks were introduced 50 years ago opening the road towards our understanding of the elementary constituents of matter and their fundamental interactions. Since then, a spectacular progress has been made with important discoveries that led to the establishment of the Standard Theory that describes accurately the basic constituents of the observable matter, namely quarks and leptons, interacting with the exchange of three fundamental forces, the weak, electromagnetic and strong force. Particle physics is now entering a new era driven by the quest of understanding of the composition of our Universe such as the unobservable (dark) matter, the hierarchy of masses and forces, the unification of all fundamental interactions with gravity in a consistent quantum framework, and several other important questions. A candidate theory providing answers to many of these questions is string theory that replaces the notion of point particles by extended objects, such as closed and open strings. In this short note, I will give a brief overview of string unification, describe in particular how quarks and leptons can emerge and discuss what are possible predictions for particle physics and cosmology that could test these ideas.

Particle Accelerators and Detectors for medical Diagnostics and Therapy

This Habilitationsschrift (Habilitation thesis) is focused on my research activities on medical applications of particle physics and was written in 2013 to obtain the Venia Docendi (Habilitation) in experimental physics at the University of Bern. It is based on selected publications, which represented at that time my major scientific contributions as an experimental physicist to the field of particle accelerators and detectors applied to medical diagnostics and therapy. The thesis is structured in two parts. In Part I, Chapter 1 presents an introduction to accelerators and detectors applied to medicine, with particular focus on cancer hadrontherapy and on the production of radioactive isotopes. In Chapter 2, my publications on medical particle accelerators are introduced and put into their perspective. In particular, high frequency linear accelerators for hadrontherapy are discussed together with the new Bern cyclotron laboratory. Chapter 3 is dedicated to particle detectors with particular emphasis on three instruments I contributed to propose and develop: segmented ionization chambers for hadrontherapy, a proton radiography apparatus with nuclear emulsion films, and a beam monitor detector for ion beams based on doped silica fibres. Selected research and review papers are contained in Part II. For copyright reasons, they are only listed and not reprinted in this on-line version. They are available on the websites of the journals.

Data Science Seminar: The data science revolution in Physics and Astronomy

Abstract Heading into the 2020s, Physics and Astronomy are undergoing experimental revolutions that will reshape our picture of the fabric of the Universe. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the largest particle physics project in the world, produces 30 petabytes of data annually that need to be sifted through, analysed, and modelled. In astrophysics, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will be taking a high-resolution image of the full sky every 3 days, leading to data rates of 30 terabytes per night over ten years. These experiments endeavour to answer the question why 96% of the content of the universe currently elude our physical understanding. Both the LHC and LSST share the 5-dimensional nature of their data, with position, energy and time being the fundamental axes. This talk will present an overview of the experiments and data that is gathered, and outlines the challenges in extracting information. Common strategies employed are very similar to industrial data! Science problems (e.g., data filtering, machine learning, statistical interpretation) and provide a seed for exchange of knowledge between academia and industry. Speaker Biography Professor Mark Sullivan Mark Sullivan is a Professor of Astrophysics in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Mark completed his PhD at Cambridge, and following postdoctoral study in Durham, Toronto and Oxford, now leads a research group at Southampton studying dark energy using exploding stars called "type Ia supernovae". Mark has many years' experience of research that involves repeatedly imaging the night sky to track the arrival of transient objects, involving significant challenges in data handling, processing, classification and analysis.

Non-standard signatures from Cosmic Microwave Background polarisation

In this Thesis we focus on non-standard signatures from CMB polarisation, which might hint at the existence of new phenomena beyond the standard models for Cosmology and Particle physics. With the Planck ESA mission, CMB temperature anisotropies have been observed at the cosmic variance limit, but polarisation remains to be further investigated. CMB polarisation data are important not only because they contribute to provide tighter constraints of cosmological parameters but also because they allow the investigation of physical processes that would be precluded if just the CMB temperature maps were considered. We take polarisation data into account to assess the statistical significance of the anomalies currently observed only in the CMB temperature map and to constrain the Cosmic Birefringence (CB) effect, which is expected in parity-violating extensions of the standard electromagnetism. In particular, we propose a new one-dimensional estimator for the lack of power anomaly capable of taking both temperature and polarisation into account jointly. With the aim of studying the anisotropic CB we develop and perform two different and complementary methods able to evaluate the power spectrum of the CB. Finally, by employing these estimators and methodologies on Planck data we provide new constraints beyond what already known in literature. The measure of CMB polarisation represents a technological challenge and to make accurate estimates, one has to keep an exquisite control of the systematic effects. In order to investigate the impact of spurious signal in forthcoming CMB polarisation experiments, we study the interplay between half-wave plates (HWP) non-idealities and the beams. Our analysis suggests that certain HWP configurations, depending on the complexity of Galactic foregrounds and the beam models, significantly impacts the B-mode reconstruction fidelity and could limit the capabilities of next-generation CMB experiments. We provide also a first study of the impact of non-ideal HWPs on CB.

Precise measurements of direct CP violation, CPT symmetry, and other parameters in the neutral kaon system

We present precise tests of CP and CPT symmetry based on the full data set of K -> pi pi decays collected by the KTeV experiment at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory during 1996, 1997, and 1999. This data set contains 16 x 10(6) K -> pi(0)pi(0) and 69 x 10(6) K -> pi(+)pi(-) decays. We measure the direct CP violation parameter Re(epsilon'/epsilon) = (19.2 +/- 2.1) x 10(-4). We find the K(L) -> K(S) mass difference Delta m = (5270 +/- 12) x 10(6) (h) over tilde s(-1) and the K(S) lifetime tau(S) = (89.62 +/- 0.05) x 10(-12) s. We also measure several parameters that test CPT invariance. We find the difference between the phase of the indirect CP violation parameter epsilon and the superweak phase: phi(epsilon) - phi(SW) =(0.40 +/- 0.56)degrees. We measure the difference of the relative phases between the CP violating and CP conserving decay amplitudes for K -> pi(+)pi(-) (phi(+-)) and for K -> pi(0)pi(0) (phi(00)): Delta phi = (0.30 +/- 0.35)degrees. From these phase measurements, we place a limit on the mass difference between K(0) and (K) over bar (0): Delta M < 4.8 x 10(-19) GeV/c(2) at 95% C.L. These results are consistent with those of other experiments, our own earlier measurements, and CPT symmetry.

High-frequency acousto-electric single-photon source

We propose a single optical photon source for quantum cryptography based on the acoustoelectric effect. Surface acoustic waves (SAWs) propagating through a quasi-one-dimensional channel have been shown to produce packets of electrons that reside in the SAW minima and travel at the velocity of sound. In our scheme, the electron packets are injected into a p-type region, resulting in photon emission. Since the number of electrons in each packet can be controlled down to a single electron, a stream of single- (or N-) photon states, with a creation time strongly correlated with the driving acoustic field, should be generated.

Magnetization transfer imaging for polymer gel dosimetry

Off-resonance RF pre-saturation was used to obtain contrast in MRI images of polymer gel dosimeters irradiated to doses up to 50 Gy. Two different polymer gel dosimeters composed of 2-hydroxyethyl-acryl ate or methacrylic acid monomers mixed with N, N'-methylene-bisacrylamide (BIS), dispersed in an aqueous gelatin matrix were evaluated. Radiation-induced polymerization of the co-monomers generates a fast-relaxing insoluble polymer. Saturation of the polymer using off-resonance Gaussian RF pulses prior to a spin-echo read-out with a short echo time leads to contrast that is dependent on the absorbed dose. This contrast is attributed to magnetization transfer (MT) between free water and the polymer, and direct saturation of water was found to be negligible under the prevailing experimental conditions. The usefulness of MT imaging was assessed by computing the dose resolution obtained with this technique. We found a low value of dose resolution over a wide range of doses could be obtained with a single experiment. This is an advantage over multiple spin echo (MSE) experiments using a single echo spacing where an optimal dose resolution is achieved over only very limited ranges of doses. The results suggest MT imaging protocols may be developed into a useful tool for polymer gel dosimetry.

Non-diagonal solutions of the reflection equation for the trigonometric A((1)) (n-1) vertex model

We obtain a class of non-diagonal solutions of the reflection equation for the trigonometric A(n-1)((1)) vertex model. The solutions can be expressed in terms of intertwinner matrix and its inverse, which intertwine two trigonometric R-matrices. In addition to a discrete (positive integer) parameter l, 1 less than or equal to l less than or equal to n, the solution contains n + 2 continuous boundary parameters.

Study of the discovery potential of light custodians in a clean decay channel at the LHC

Models of warped extra dimensions with custodial symmetry usually predict the existence of a light Kaluza-Klein fermion arising as a partner of the right-handed top quark, sometimes called light custodians which we will denote (b) over tilde (R). The production of these particles at the LHC can give rise to multi-W events which could be observed in same-sign dilepton channels, but its mass reconstruction is challenging. In this paper we study the possibility of finding a signal for the pair production of this new particle at the LHC focusing on a rarer, but cleaner decay mode of a light custodian into a Z boson and a b-quark. In this mode it would be possible to reconstruct the light custodian mass. In addition to the dominant standard model QCD production processes, we include the contribution of a Kaluza-Klein gluon first mode. We find that (b) over tilde (R) stands out from the background as a peak in the bZ invariant mass. However, when taking into account only the electronic and muonic decay modes of the Z boson and b-tagging efficiencies, the LHC will have access only to the very light range of masses, m((b) over tilde) = O(500) GeV.

Magnetized strangelets at finite temperature

The main properties of strangelets, namely their energy per baryon, radius and electric charge, are studied in the unpaired magnetized strange quark matter (MSQM) and paired magnetized colour flavour locked (MCFL) phases. Temperature effects are taken into account in order to study their stability compared to the Fe-56 isotope and nonmagnetized strangelets within the framework of the MIT bag model. We conclude that the presence of a magnetic field tends to stabilize the strangelets more, even when temperature is considered. It is also shown that MCFL strangelets are more stable than ordinary MSQM strangelets for typical gap values of the order of O(100) MeV. A distinctive feature in the detection of strangelets either in cosmic rays or in heavy-ion collider experiments could be their electric charge. We find that the electric charge is modified in the presence of the magnetic field, leading to higher (lower) charge values for MSQM (MCFL) strangelets, when compared to the nonmagnetized case.

Spontaneous leptonic CP violation and nonzero theta(13)

We consider a simple extension of the Standard Model by adding two Higgs triplets and a complex scalar singlet to its particle content. In this framework, the CP symmetry is spontaneously broken at high energies by the complex vacuum expectation value of the scalar singlet. Such a breaking leads to leptonic CP violation at low energies. The model also exhibits an A(4) X Z(4) flavor symmetry which, after being spontaneously broken at a high-energy scale, yields a tribimaximal pattern in the lepton sector. We consider small perturbations around the tribimaximal vacuum alignment condition in order to generate nonzero values of theta(13), as required by the latest neutrino oscillation data. It is shown that the value of theta(13) recently measured by the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment can be accommodated in our framework together with large Dirac-type CP violation. We also address the viability of leptogenesis in our model through the out-of-equilibrium decays of the Higgs triplets. In particular, the CP asymmetries in the triplet decays into two leptons are computed and it is shown that the effective leptogenesis and low-energy CP-violating phases are directly linked.

Innovation and new business through mutually beneficial collaboration and proactive procurement

ABSTRACT This dissertation focuses on new technology commercialization, innovation and new business development. Industry-based novel technology may achieve commercialization through its transfer to a large research laboratory acting as a lead user and technical partner, and providing the new technology with complementary assets and meaningful initial use in social practice. The research lab benefits from the new technology and innovation through major performance improvements and cost savings. Such mutually beneficial collaboration between the lab and the firm does not require any additional administrative efforts or funds from the lab, yet requires openness to technologies and partner companies that may not be previously known to the lab- Labs achieve the benefits by applying a proactive procurement model that promotes active pre-tender search of new technologies and pre-tender testing and piloting of these technological options. The collaboration works best when based on the development needs of both parties. This means that first of all the lab has significant engineering activity with well-defined technological needs and second, that the firm has advanced prototype technology yet needs further testing, piloting and the initial market and references to achieve the market breakthrough. The empirical evidence of the dissertation is based on a longitudinal multiple-case study with the European Laboratory for Particle Physics. The key theoretical contribution of this study is that large research labs, including basic research, play an important role in product and business development toward the end, rather than front-end, of the innovation process. This also implies that product-orientation and business-orientation can contribute to basic re-search. The study provides practical managerial and policy guidelines on how to initiate and manage mutually beneficial lab-industry collaboration and proactive procurement.